Proposed Bus Service Changes Consultation (2)

Tony Arbour: If the ‘Proposed bus service changes in Richmond, Twickenham and Whitton’ go ahead, how many additional changes does TfL believe bus users will make every year?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) estimates that there are currently 270,000 journeys every year where implementation of the proposals would mean that passengers would need to change buses to complete their journeys. This is about 7.5 per cent of total trips on the affected routes.
The proposals have been designed to make switching to another bus as easy as possible, often at the same bus stop. My Hopper fare means that any further bus journeys are free and unlimited within one hour of first touching in. TfL anticipates that any new interchanges resulting from the proposed changes should be possible within this timeframe, meaning that customers will not pay an additional fare.

Driver Only Operation

Tony Devenish: Do you accept that Driver Only Operation is entirely safe and there is no reason why it should not be introduced on all mainline rail in London?

The Mayor: Train travel continues to be fundamentally safe and the risks are extremely low. I do recognise that passengers can feel reassured by the presence of visible staff across the transport network. When it comes to passenger safety across the national transport network, there is no one size fits all strategy, and each mainline rail route should assess the risks and apply appropriate safety measures as needed. Transport for London (TfL) has its own high standards and associated protocols in place and can operate in a DOO/DCO mode.

Delays in Publishing TfL’s Quarterly Bus Safety Data

Caroline Pidgeon: To date TfL has only published Bus Safety Data up to the second quarter ending 30 June 2018. Do you think TfL’s delay in publishing this information right after each quarter end detracts from your ’Vision Zero’ messaging?

The Mayor: Accurate data is critical to achieving Vision Zero. Transport for London’s (TfL’s) process therefore includes a pause to ensure that all relevant data has been collected, validated and thoroughly reviewed prior to publication.
The most recent set of quarterly statistics (July 2018 to September 2018) was published on 14 January 2019 at the following webpage: https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/publications-and-reports/bus-safety-data#on...
However, I recognise that there is an appetite among some stakeholders for earlier access to the most recent data, and have asked TfL to look for opportunities to speed up bus statistics publication without sacrificing accuracy.

Transparency and Vision Zero: Bus Operator Forum

Keith Prince: With regard to your response to MQT 2018/3426, in order to ensure transparency and accountability for Safety matters, will you consider allowing a member of the TfL’s Safety, Sustainability and Human Resources Panel and a member of the London Assembly Transport Committee to attend portions of the TfL’s Bus Operator Forum Meetings where safety is the topic of discussion?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) does not consider this would be necessary. Bus safety is already regularly scrutinised by their Safety, Sustainability and Human Resources Panel. It has been the core subject of two bus safety summits, to which TfL invited a range of key stakeholders including London Assembly members, and has also been examined through the GLA Transport Committee’s Driven to Distraction report. The Bus Operations Forum is intended to enable TfL and the operators to discuss productively the issues facing them and how to make the network safer.

Policing (3)

Peter Whittle: Over the last two years, the Metropolitan Police have clocked up nearly two million hours of overtime which, cost £40m. Does the Mayor agree with Ken Marsh, Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, who claims the money spent on overtime could have "trained thousands" of new officers?

The Mayor: Overtime is essential to providing emergency services with the flexibility they need to provide a service 24hrs a day. It can be precisely and quickly targeted to meet operational need and is an important part of resource management.
Used appropriately, as one of many resourcing tools, it is a cost-effective way for the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) to fulfil its core obligations and is deliberately budgeted for. The recruitment and training of new officers is vital, but this cannot replace the use of overtime in its entirety, which provides much needed flexibility.
However, Government cuts have led to falls in officer numbers and this will have increased the pressure on overtime. While the use of some overtime is inevitable the MPS should not be in the position of being forced to use it to plug the gaps created by the lack of funding from the Government.
Senior MPS officers and the Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime (MOPAC) will continue to scrutinise and oversee overtime spend within the MPS and I will continue to pressure the Government for the MPS to be properly funded.

Safest Bus Fleet in the World

Caroline Pidgeon: On TfL’s Bus Safety Page on its website, it leads with a statement that “London’s bus fleet is one of the safest in the world”. Given that Imperial College’s International Bus Benchmarking Group shows that London has not even ranked in the top half of its peers for safety for over a decade, do you consider that statement misleading?

The Mayor: I am keen to see London move to the top of the International Bus Benchmarking Group list as we work towards the Vision Zero target of no fatalities on the bus network by 2030. This includes implementing a world-leading bus safety standard from the end of this year, early installation of Intelligent Speed Assistance, and building a stronger safety culture across our bus operations. Transport for London has updated its bus safety webpage to reflect the latest work in this area.

Access to toilets (3)

Fiona Twycross: There remains variance in access to toilets in London’s mainline train stations, with some charging and others not. Will you work with stakeholders to work towards all of London’s train station toilets being free of charge?

The Mayor: Mainline station toilets will be free of charge from April 2019, as Network Rail is removing toilet charges from all the stations it manages.
London Overground and TfL Rail toilet facilities are already free of charge. On London Underground, Transport for London (TfL) has completed its review of toilets and is considering a number of recommendations, including removing charging and looking into new systems to mitigate the risk of anti-social behaviour. This is taking some time to get right, as TfL needs to ensure that any new policy can be implemented on London Underground and that good quality facilities can continue to be available for customers to use.
Free access to toilets is a subject I feel strongly about, and in the new London Plan, I will be putting in place steps to ensure more free, clean, safe and publicly accessible toilets are made available to Londoners across the capital.

TFL - PR/Public affairs

Susan Hall: How much money has TFL spent on PR/public affairs companies over the past 5 years, broken down by year? Please also provide details of what this money was used for and which PR/public affairs companies were/are used?

The Mayor: Transport for London (TfL) does not use agencies for PR or public affairs work.
The only exception is the Art on the Underground programme, which contracts a specialist Arts PR support agency to communicate the programme to the widest possible audience.
Art on the Underground’s work is part-funded by external sources, including commercial sponsorship, grants and sales income from selling limited editions prints and books online, as well as other products like artist designed tiles through specialist retailers. Annual income varies but, over the period, more income has been generated than the cost of this support.
In addition, over the period TfL’s Property Development programme contracted an agency to conduct specialist local community engagement to support the delivery of much needed new, affordable homes on TfL land. Crossrail 2and TfL alsocontracted agencies to support in localcommunityevent planning and logistics work. These companies were not contracted to perform PR orpublicaffairs work but the cost of the community engagement work is included in the table below for completeness.
Please see the attached appendix for the breakdown.